DEATH OF THE RADIO
Today, listening to music is as simple as looking at your phone, compared to turning on the radio WORDS: Emily Brown, Kayla Oberholtzer, Humza Mohiuddin, Gabriella Simkus and Isabella Simkus
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n a day to day basis, people immerse themselves in sound or music. That may be listening to music or podcasts, from streaming services or the radio. This is the death of the radio. “I definitely use aux more than radio because I like having all the songs I enjoy on one playlist, instead of waiting for certain songs on the radio. If the radio had more options, I would probably still use the aux since all my music is on my phone. The last time I listened to the radio was a week ago, but only because my phone had died,” Isaac Madrigal (12) said. Listening to the radio is one of the many ways to find out what songs are on the range. This can help for those like Elijah Johnson (12), who is a DJ. Despite using the radio, he still uses modern-day streaming services and apps to know what others prefer. “I do listen to the radio! I’m a DJ and it helps because I get to hear other DJ’s mixes, which helps a lot with my own craft. On a day to day, I use Apple Music, maybe SoundCloud if I can’t find something I like on Apple Music. I also use Youtube a lot though; it also exposes me to a lot of different kinds of music,” Johnson said. An issue one of the students pointed out was about how repetitive the radio is. Stations will usually play a few of the same songs over the course of a few hours, to a few weeks. Due to this, some students prefer to use different streaming services to get their music.
DESIGN: Joanna Kouros PHOTO: Emily Brown
“I THINK THAT THE RADIO WILL NOT BE A THING IN THE PAST, JUST BECAUSE IT’S BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG TIME AND PEOPLE STILL HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT.” Megan soeka (11)
”The radio is definitely outdated just because of all the different options on your phone. Also because of all the streaming services like Spotify,“ Mallory Hardesty (10) said. “I would definitely listen to the radio way more if there were more options. Like I do not wanna keep listening to Levitating by Dua Lipa. I promise I know that song word for word because they keep playing it.” The radio was a way for people to keep up with what was going on, whether it be local or worldwide. Using it to listen to music, news or sporting events. Nowadays
we can find all these things on our phones and other devices. “If the radio was discontinued, I wouldn’t think too much of it because I could get the same songs on my phone; but when I listen to the radio I find myself discovering new songs. I think the radio is both outdated and not outdated. The [boombox] radio seems outdated because I haven’t seen one in a very long time. The car radios are not outdated because those are in pretty much every single car,” Megan Soeka (11) said. Some say that the radio has a small range of variety. Hardesty pointed out that if more songs from different genres and time periods were played, she would listen to the radio more. “I feel like on the radio they should play more songs. I realized they started to play older songs from the beginning of the 2000s which I’m starting to like. It’s very few radio stations, if they did that more I would listen to the radio more,” Hardesty said. According to eMarketer, the at home speaker usage went up 10% in April of 2020. Despite all the radio has been through, Ryan Watson (9) believes that the radio can bring a comeback to modern-day streaming services. A few ways a comeback could be made is by sharing information about what is going on in the world and
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